In one week’s time, through hours of labor and a little creativity, a North Carolina church group transformed a communal garden into a true community gathering spot.

The Campus Kitchen at Wake Forest University participated in 2010’s MLK Day of Service by committing to a year-long project to build a community garden at a partner agency site: El Buen Pastor. While the garden began yielding fresh produce this Spring, it hadn’t quite yielded the community gathering activities CKWFU had hoped for. That’s where Grace Haven Baptist Fellowship came in. Their mission: build a pavilion-like structure, run a day camp, and volunteer at the Campus Kitchen – all in one week.

“One of the things we really wanted to do was facilitate the garden as more of a community space,” says Shelley Graves, Campus Kitchen coordinator. “We wanted to encourage El Buen Pastor’s members to cook dinner, grill out, do weeding or watering, harvest together, and lay the harvest in the shade to divide up.”

While the group of 31 middle and high school students worked alongside the men from El Buen Pastor to build an earthquake/hurricane-proof pavilion approximately 35 by 45 feet, holding 50 people, the middle and high school students also led a day camp each morning for some of the community’s younger children. The day camp focused on sustainability, with an emphasis on what partnering with the earth actually means. The group took campers through everything from recycling, to how to weed in the garden, to introducing children to a birds of prey rescuer.

“With the wildlife rescuer, you would have thought there was a celebrity in the room,” says Graves. “All eyes were fixed on her.”

In the afternoons, the group rotated to work for the Campus Kitchen. While only those 18 plus were allowed to work in the kitchen during the meal preparation shift, the rest of the group worked in the Campus Kitchen garden and participated in daily Fresh Market produce pickups.

“Fresh Market gave them a really good visual image of food waste and what is considered trash and yet still edible,” says Graves. “I think that it was a really good, teachable moment.”

Thanks to cooperation and university support (the church group received a free dinner, reduced pricing on group housing, and entertainment), the group completed work on the structure early and had extra materials, so they decided to build a fence around the MLK garden to help keep out pests. And while El Buen Pastor gained something extra, the service group gained more than they planned for too.

“The group talked about food and what gets thrown away,” says Graves. “They learned things like how do you curb what you put on your plate and eat in a responsible way.” Graves added that the language barrier – especially that with the younger kids at El Buen Pastor – was a good challenge for the group to overcome.

On the final day of the service week, the two groups switched roles, this time with El Buen Pastor serving Grace Baptist. The church group worked a half day, then went to Hanging Rock State Park, with a home-cooked lunch of thanks from the community.

Post to Twitter